Dave Attwood, the England lock, may leave Gloucester for a more lucrative contract at Bath. Photograph: Nigel French/Empics Sport

Dave Attwood, the England lock who is missing the Six Nations because of a nine-week ban for stamping, seems certain to be leaving Gloucester at the end of the season and is likely to join Bath.

With a string of players, such as Mike Tindall, James Simpson-Daniel, Olivier Azam, Alex Brown and Paul Doran-Jones soon to be out of contract, Gloucester are refusing to break their pay structure to keep the 23-year-old, who was one of the England successes on the tour of New Zealand and Australia in the summer Attwood. Bath are believed to be prepared to treble his earnings. Leicester heaved a considerable sigh of relief yesterday when they persuaded their Italian international tight-head prop Martin Castrogiovanni to ignore considerable offers from French clubs to stay in the East Midlands. "A player has to think about of lot of things when he is trying to decide on the future, and money is not everything, said Castrogiovanni who has also opened a restaurant in the town.

"I have always said that I enjoy my rugby at Leicester Tigers, I like it here and I always had in my mind that I wanted to stay." Mike Averis